Polaroid Infatuation
by FragilePuzzle
Summary: Mello and Near are forced to look through a photobook with Polaroids from their childhood-- they stumble upon the love they lost, and the hatred that filled its place. It's a shame when you create things you can't destroy. Mello/Near oneshot.


**A/N: **I have no idea where the eff this came from. = w = The Beatles always make me want to write sweet fluff about running through fields and being madly in love, so this story violently tore itself out of my writing womb. Hope you enjoy, despite the crappy randomness of it all. XD It's written to 'Yesterday' and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand.' Jesus CHRIST, I love The Beatles.

_Italics are flashbacks/memories._

* * *

L was sitting in his bedroom at the Japanese Task Force HQ when Watari opened the door and walked in without knocking, old face sad and wrinkled as he looked down at what appeared to be a photobook in his hands. It was an old, black, leather one, the binding practically rotting and falling apart, but the thing that really caught L's eye were the two names that were sloppily scrawled on the cover. It was children's handwriting, and the gray lead it was written with stood out greatly against the otherwise desolate black.

"Does that say…?" L softly asked, extending his thin arm and signaling for Watari to hand the photobook to him.

'Mello' and 'Near' were the two names that were scribbled on to the front, Near's handwriting much neater than Mello's, even back then. L spent a few moments staring at them, tracing his pale fingers over the indents that the pencil had left before settling himself back into the chair he was sitting in, and opening the cover.

~*~*~*~

"Mello, Near, please report to Roger's office," said a lady who worked in the kitchen, neither of them knew her name, even though she had been in charge of serving them food their entire lives. The two teenage boys were sitting in the common room, Mello angrily eating a chocolate bar and glaring at Near, and Near simply sitting on the floor and clicking the plain white pieces of his favorite blank puzzle into place. Both of them nodded, standing up at the exact same time, Near stacking the remaining pieces of his puzzle on to the board that held them before beginning to follow the blonde down to Roger's office.

"Don't follow me so freakin closely," growled Mello, beginning to pick up the pace with his strides, knowing that Near wouldn't bother to try and keep up with him. He was the first to arrive at Roger's office, of course, Near arriving just a minute later. The old man was sitting at his desk, a black photobook resting on the desk—one they both recognized, but had forgotten about until now. It had their names written on the front, and it appeared as though it had just been found, as it still smelled like the attic where Mello had hidden it so many years ago.

"When I was cleaning out the attic the other day…" the man started, folding his hands and looking at the both of them. "I found this…so I immediately sent it to L, who requested that the two of you look it over again, for…old times' sake."

"Why should we?" the blonde huffed, walking over to the desk and roughly picking up the book, slamming the first page open and seeing their names written there once again. He remembered how much time they had painstakingly spent decorating this page, covering it with gothic Ms, Ns, and Ls, hearts, flowers, clouds, suns, robots, cupcakes…the drawings were terrible, of course, but the blonde would recall the adorable face Near made when he was hunched over the library desk, trying to draw his favorite robot that rested on the oaken table in front of him. He had been sticking the very tip of his tongue out, chewing on it as he furrowed his brow and gripped the pencil in his small hand, attempting to replicate the robot perfectly. Mello had only been sitting on a chair right next to him, drawing chocolate cupcakes and Ms everywhere. Afterwards, he felt bad that there were a bunch of Ms and no Ns, so he had to add many different Ns as well…they must have spent so many afternoons decorating the pages of the photobook.

"Mello," Roger said, snapping him out of his memory-induced trance, as he had just been standing there blankly and staring at the book. "Please obey L's wishes, go to the library, and look through it with Near. You will be excused from all of your classes for the rest of the day."

'Is it really that important that we reminisce over the past?' Near wondered, twirling a lock of his hair around his finger and nodding at Roger as he got up to follow the blonde down to the library. 'Bringing up old wounds is never beneficial…'

A few minutes later, the two boys arrived in the library, sitting down at the same table they had sat at together every day, so many years ago—it was the one in the corner of the library, the dark corner that nobody dared venture into. The odd window in the room rested there…while all of the other windows were arching, crystal-clear glass with golden panes, this one was a stained glass with a design of a black flower and a white dove resting on it. However, the two of them liked it.

"I suppose…we should begin looking," Near said softly, opening again to the first page, seeing a Polaroid there. It was the two of them, flashing peace signs at the camera, Mello smiling brightly and vivaciously, and Near having a small grin on his face. It snapped at both of their heartstrings, so they had to turn the page quickly. It wasn't as if the pictures got any better—they all showed moments in their childhood, their childhood where they had been completely inseparable, the best of friends, sharing the deepest kind of innocent childhood love. After all, the competition for L didn't start until the children were a ripe ten years old, so their relationship had five years to flourish before it was roughly torn down by pressure and expectations.

"I remember that," grinned the blonde, biting his lip and turning his smile into a frown as he realized that Near was looking at him instead of the picture. He didn't want Near to know that some part of him lusted for those times, that some part of him wanted them back more than anything—but he couldn't have them. He knew that he couldn't…not now that they were rivals, they were competitors. But after all, people always said, "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."

"I remember that as well…" said the small boy, twirling a lock of hair and adjusting his position to allow himself to pull a leg to his chest. "That was taken the day L visited the orphanage and took us out for ice cream, was it not?"

"It was…" Mello said, smile in his voice as he restrained it on his face. "You got vanilla…"

"And Mello, of course, got chocolate," said Near, gently touching the page with the photo stuck to it using colorful stickers, as if touching the photo could bring him back to those times. The Polaroid depicted them feeding each other ice cream out of the cone—the exact moment L took the picture, Mello's hand had slipped and he had accidentally gotten some of the chocolate confection on Near's petite nose. The blonde was giggling madly, but Near just had a look of shock on his face, eyes meeting Mello's as his mouth opened into an 'O' shape. Both of them remembered that, after that…as if to apologize, Mello had kissed the ice cream off of his nose and they had gone back to feeding each other flavors that they only liked because the other boy was feeding it to them. It wasn't until the ice cream was almost gone that the idea of switching cones struck them. In the end, they had ended up switching cones, and Near remembered tasting a small bit of Mello's saliva in his vanilla. At first, he thought it would have cooties, but then he realized that if Mello had them, it didn't really matter if he ended up getting them as well.

"_Nia, I think your nose tastes better than the ice cream!" giggled the small blonde boy, both of them done with their ice cream cones by now. L beckoned for the two to follow him out of the park where they had been eating on a bench, and Mello was the first to hop down, holding out his hand for Near a moment later—as if he were the prince in a storybook, and he had to help his princess out of the carriage. Near took it and slowly made his way down, but when he went to remove his hand from the blonde's grasp, Mello wouldn't let him. The black-clad boy had just smiled at him and squeezed his hand, signaling that he wanted to hold it._

"I recall when this picture was taken," Near said, not able to resist a small smile that flickered across his face for a moment as he pointed to the photo on the next page. It was one at Halloween—Near had insisted on being Snow White, and Mello was a cute-looking vampire.

"_Nia, I'm going to bite your neck!" the blonde said, cackling as he ran around Near, his cape flowing out behind him. "I'm like…D…Dramula?"_

"_Mello cannot bite my neck…" said Near, the small boy's voice as soft and girlish as ever. "There was two of the older students in the living room, and the boy was biting the girl's neck, and Roger sent them to detention…he said if they acted like that in front of me, they could get 'spelled, because that was only for adults."_

"_That's because that boy wasn't a vampire!" Mello insisted, nodding fiercely. "You can't do it unless you're a vampire, Nia!"_

_Near just sat there, holding a ruby-red apple in his hand, shrugging softly and averting his eyes from Mello…he was nervous now, because he didn't want to get 'spelled—even though he didn't know what that meant, Roger sure said it like it was something bad. All he knew was that when the teacher said they were going to get spelled, it meant they had to practice spelling._

"_Niaaaa…" the blonde said ominously, walking over to the other boy and pulling him into a hug. "You have to let me bite your neck now!"_

_Near looked up at Mello with wide eyes, the blonde nodding seriously as the smaller boy complied and tilted his head, allowing Mello full access to his pale neck. The black-clad boy, not really sure what to do now, clumsily pressed a cross between a kiss and a nip to the place where Near's neck and shoulder connected—he didn't really want to hurt him, so he wasn't going to seriously bite him, of course. However, even when he just did that, Near let out a whimpering noise and his hands gripped at Mello's cape, so the blonde quickly pulled away, deathly afraid that he had hurt the small boy._

"_I-I'm sorry, Nia!" he said, gently touching the blossoming red mark with his fingertips. "I didn't mean to hurt you!"_

"_I-It…did not hurt…" he said, face quickly becoming painted a deep red as he went to turn away, but instead buried his face in Mello's chest, trying to suffocate his vivid cherry flush._

"We were such awkward dorks back then…" sighed Mello, flipping through a few more pages, noticing some pictures that brought back even more memories. "I ended up biting you on your neck anyways…I wanted to be like Dracula."

"I do not believe that we were 'awkward dorks'…" Near said, twirling his hair slightly harder as his eyes raised from the book to meet Mello's own. "I believe that we were children that shared a deep affection for each other."

"Only because we were stupid kids…" the blonde protested softly, chewing on the inside of his lip and longing for a chocolate bar and a chance to get out of this awkward conversation. "I mean, seriously, if L was expecting something to come out of us looking at this, what was it? Sometimes, he's so freaking _weird_!"

"I believe that L was trying to get us to spark a up a partnership," said Near, interrupting the dead silence of the library as he yanked on that one lock of hair, a few strands snapping off of his scalp and remaining twisted around his finger. "It has occurred to Mello how much better we would be together, than individually, I assume?"

"No, because I can't work with you," he insisted, continuing to flip through the pages of memories in his hands, the pictures of the two of them seemingly never-ending. "I can't work with you, because you're an arrogant asshole that thinks he's better than me at everything, and insists on rubbing it in my face daily. You're pretty bastard-y all over, in fact, not to mention the fact that I hate your guts, and I suspect that you eat babies for breakfast and are actually the devil in disguise."

Suddenly, the blonde landed on the final page, and there only rested a single photo there. It was of the two of them lying in the grass, sleeping, Mello sprawled out with both of his arms to the sides, and Near curled up next to his side, thumb at his lips in a way that reminded them both of L. With his free hand, the small boy was clutching on to the stomach of Mello's shirt, and his head of curls was nudging up against his chest. However, something was written there that Near hadn't remembered—somebody had written 'Love' in painstakingly intricate gothic letters, but before he had time to observe it further, Mello slammed the book shut, holding it to his chest before running off.

"_Mello…?" Near asked softly, his voice still as shy as the day he had first arrived at Wammy's. "I am tired…"_

"_Wanna take a nap?" the blonde suggested, plopping down in the middle of the large grassy field they had been picnicking in moments earlier. "You can snuggle with me, so you don't get lonely or cold…because the lunch-lady says that if you're outside for too long, you can get mehnoinia!"_

"_What is meh…no…nia…ah?" asked the small boy, lying down in the grass next to the blonde, snuggling up to him so he didn't get 'mehnoniaha.'_

"_You just get it if you're outside too long by yourself…?" he suggested, his large blue eyes staring up at the clouds. "So that's why you have to snuggle with me, so you don't get sick!"_

_Near nodded compliantly, staring at the clouds with Mello, the air silent and thick with love—just the appreciation of each other, and the fact that they could snuggle like this, and watch the clouds together. It was better than chocolate and toys combined. However, after a few minutes of cloud-watching, Near's eyes began to droop. He struggled to keep them open, so he could stay up with Mello, but the blonde noticed and gently tapped him on his small nose._

"_Nia, you have to get some sleep, so you can wake up and we can play together!" he smiled, placing a kiss on the small boy's forehead, knowing how much Near liked it when he did that. When he got a soft, 'okay' from the small boy, he spoke up again. "Nia, do you think we can get married when we grow up?"_

"_I think we can…" he murmured, voice laced with sleep. "I would like to get married to Mello…"_

"_Good!" he said happily, closing his bright eyes. "I love you, Nia!"_

"Mello…" sighed Near, hands squeezing into fists as he stood up out of the creaky old chair, going to chase after the blonde. "Mello, please wait!"

He found the blonde immediately outside of the library, Mello apparently trying to rip the first page in the photobook in half—the one they had spent so much time decorating together. However his hands were shaking, and it seemed as though he could not bring himself to rip the paper.

"Don't try and stop me," he said, attempting to rip it again, stopping right before the paper crinkled whatsoever.

"I would not try and stop Mello," said the small boy, gray eyes affixed to the angry-looking blonde. "I only came out here to tell him something…it was to reply to something that I never did reply to."

"What the hell is it?" he asked, finally throwing the old picture book down on to the ground, upset with himself for his weakness. He couldn't bring himself to destroy those precious photos…the only things he had left that showed he was ever on so much as speaking terms with Near.

"I love Mello too," he said softly, picking up the picture book and walking away from the stunned blonde.

* * *

**End Note: **That was surprisingly fun to write….but oh GOD was it OOC. Well, they're innocent kids back then, and they do whatever I want them to. Hope you enjoyed! Oh, and if you have a request, porn or otherwise, feel free to leave it—I'm not guaranteeing that I'll do it for sure definite, but the more I like the idea, the more I feel inclined to do it. XD

~FragilePuzzle


End file.
